The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

13 Dec, 2095. 2:48 a.m. Tuesday

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8:36 a.m., 21st day of the ninth circling, 9116AS

Trade route to Tvarglad

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Travel between towns, cities, and villages, could take hours and days, even for those who could afford speedier transport.

It could get tedious, especially if a player traveled often.

The game creator's answer to that was classic: random encounter.

In the six in-game days of travel, the apothecary caravan Krow joined on Morumain's suggestion encountered three monster attacks, two bandit attacks, and an encounter with a band of thieves traveling on the same road.

What was the difference between bandits and thieves?

Redlands differentiated mostly by location and methodology: bandits were generally encountered in rural areas, thieves in towns. Bandits raided, taking everything; thieves sneaked into a place and were selective about their loot.

The carriage hurtling toward him could be either, really.

It wasn't that farfetched a distraction.

It burst from the woods, and was almost on Krow before he could react.

The horse under him bolted.

Shkav!

He braced against the saddle and reined the horse into circling.

Several riders converged on the driverless carriage, falling on the flapping reins to haul the four horse heavy carriage to a stop. The leader of the caravan guards leaped from his horse when efforts failed, grabbing onto the collar of the lead horse and leaning back.

"Krow!"

Ebry, whose wagon he'd been riding with for most of the journey leaned out from his seat on the driver's bench, craning his neck. The wagons of the caravan ground to a slow walk.

After so much trouble on this journey, everyone fell into defensive positions automatically.

"I'm fine!" He finally got the blasted horse under control, jumped down as Calon, the guard leader, and two others used their bodies to brake the carriage.

Strong horses.

His horse bolting likely saved him a maiming, come to think of it.

But that still didn't mean he liked horses.

Learning to ride was just practical.

He drew his gun, glanced at the others. They warily eyed the sides of the road and the cliff behind them.

"If they wanted to ambush us," muttered Ebry. "A few kilometers behind at Wildfall Cliff would've been better."

The draculkar rider pacing the wagon chuckled. "I'm sure the bandits would appreciate your commentary on their technique, Ebrelas."

"It's Ebry."

"You change your name so often," the rider snorted. "I'll stick to the one your parents gave you."

"It's really Ebry this time!"

"Uh-huh."

Krow strode to the carriage door, nudged it open.

The precaution paid off. A dagger flew past his ear. Not forceful enough. He twisted to catch it. "This is the—"

A figure rushed out of the carriage, clothes flapping, headed for the trees.

It tripped over a rut in the road, fell flat in a mass of robes.

There was a short silence. The figure groaned.

It was now evident the figure was a man.

"I'm Krow," he started again, ignoring that the other was flat on his face. "And this is a Drevalen Apothecary caravan."

The man pushed himself up, stared at them for a long moment of suspicion, pale blue eyes taking in the riders and the wagons, Krow and the caravan guard leader nearing them.

Relief suffused his rotund face. "Thank the Eighteen! I haven't been murdered by bandits!"

He bounced to his feet and beamed at them, dusting himself off with small fastidious pats. He frowned at a smear of mud on his sleeve. "Oh, skies. I must change. I feel terrible to be seen in this state, excuse me."

Oh no.

Was the guy a noble?

Calon came up, paused at that spiel, face quickly falling into neutral lines. "Sir, you said there were bandits?"

"Oh, don't sir me. I'm Avan Fresland. Just call me Avan."

"I'm Calon, the escort leader of this caravan. Where were you attacked?"

Another bandit attack?

Krow eyed the trees.

Well, he'd actually gained Lvl 20 on this journey, so he wasn't complaining.

He listened with half an ear to Calon questioning Avan Fresland, interest caught by the subtle detailing of the heavy carriage.

It was the kind of carriage designed to take heavy fire.

Not uncommon for traveling carriages of the wealthy.

It was black all over, the four grey horses basically the only splash of color in the ensemble.

Wait, four greys?

Why did that sound familiar?

He frowned at the horses.

They were perfectly matched greys, all of them dappled black and white on the hindlegs.

From the color, they couldn't be ordinary.

It was a bit of trivia he'd learned in Zushkenar from a former RSI employee. The monsters in Redlands were handpainted by the numerous teams under Norge, who liked to relax with coloring programs.

No single monster was exactly the same, even with a designated color palette assigned to each monster type.

To get four monsters of similar design, there was a breeding algorithm. Basically, a pair of monsters that matched in color and design a whole Rarity Grade higher than unmatched pairs.

It was one of those small details that were put in for the observant to notice.

It was a feature of all animals in Redlands.

Someone who could buy four matched horses would not be an ordinary person.

But why was it familiar?

"Excellent horses," Ebry came beside him with a calculating look in his eye, ever the merchant.

"Oh?"

"Come convince the owner not to leave them behind. I've been trying to say they'd sell for a fair gold in Tvarglad, but the human is stubborn."

Tvarglad. Four greys.

The memory struck Krow, surprise prickling up his spine.

The Runaway Grey quest!

The quest was to find a runaway grey horse, which turned into capturing four horses, which turned into a search for the owner. Bringing the owner to the Primar gained a continuing questline or a city key.

The intelligent player would take the quests.

Krow inwardly laughed at himself. The days where people praised his intelligence were far behind him.

The city key was nothing more than a bonus from the leader of the city. Since many cities in Redlands were actually city-states, it counted as a royal boon.

Of course, the questline from the city leader would also be a Unique questline, with great rewards. Done right, it would funnel the player into one of Tvarglad's storyline quests.

Compared to that, a mere city key was paltry reward.

The key could be redeemed for 1,000 gold drax, can be used to gain military training from the royal guard, can be used to access elite and restricted areas of the city.

It didn't compare to the questline at all.

But Tvarglad had one thing that interested Krow.

The Tvarglad Enchanter's Library.